The body has just a handful of basic needs: water, food, sleep, and air.
The soul, in it’s multiplicity, has a variety of needs – so many that sometimes trying to meet every individual aspect of our inner-being, when they are ALL raising their hands at the same time, is quite the challenge.
But at the beginning of life, and in the foundations of our being, the soul really has only two basic needs: autonomy and belonging.
Autonomy relates to the seed of individuality that lives within each of us. The Greeks called this the telos of the soul and related it to an acorn that has its innate destiny and motivation to become an oak tree. We each have a distinct telos and the soul has an innate need to be and become itself. Autonomous people are in charge of their own destiny – they are the rulers of their own inner and outer life. It is our birthright to be in author(ity) of our own lives, to hear the call of the soul and follow its lead.
The need for autonomy and the expression of the unique soul is a highlighted experience for all of us right now due to the large number of activating energies sweeping through Aries. Aries rules the masculine principle of self and the initiating aspect of the soul that drives individuation. With so much activation, especially from the innovative, revolutionary, and unique-ifying Uranus – the inner rebel that drives the birth of self is waking us up to this need.
But our need for self often feels like it is in opposition to the other equal need of the soul – to belong. For many of us it feels like a choice we constantly have to make: Do I take care of myself or honor my responsibility in this relationship? Can I be myself or have this job? Can I speak my truth or be in relationship with my mother? Can I be my most eccentric unique, expressed self or will I be exiled, ostracized and alone if I do? (more…)